2018-09-10
Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze
It is an honor to be on an official visit to your friendly country in the rank of Georgia's Prime Minister.
Above all else, I would like to greet and thank you for your warm welcome. Our countries are known for the hospitality, as clearly evidence by this day.
This year, our two nations are celebrating the most important dates in contemporary history, the 100th anniversary of independence. A century ago, the Georgian and Armenian people, despite trials and tribulations, exhibited exceptional resilience and clearly demonstrated their commitment to the democratic path of development.
In a few days, September 21, Armenia will celebrate Day of Independence. Please accept my sincere congratulations.
After the restoration of independence, our joint efforts made it possible to develop mutually beneficial cooperation based on trust between our countries.
It is symbolic in a way that the two countries, with new compositions of their respective Governments, are given a chance to coordinate important issues on their bilateral agenda. I believe that the friendship between Georgia and Armenia will deepen even further in a number of directions of interaction preconditioned by our active visits.
During today's meeting, my colleague and I discussed the key issues of cooperation. We emphasized our aspirations for intense political dialogue. We also spoke about such areas of cooperation as transport, energy, tourism, culture, education, and innovation. We agree that there still is untapped potential in more than direction. In late autumn, we will host the Intergovernmental Commission to discuss far-reaching ideas as to how we can further develop our economic and trade relations.
At the same time, we discussed Georgia's European integration and the country's significant achievements on this path. We also commended the growing cooperation between Armenia and the EU.
We expressed our commitment to continuing regular meetings, maintaining the high dynamic of top-level exchange visits, and promoting closer cooperation between the two countries' sectoral institutions.
In conclusion, I once again express my immense gratitude to my colleague for his hospitality and war welcome. I also express readiness for future cooperation.
Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan
Dear colleagues, dear journalists, dear Prime Minister! I am really happy about our meeting today. We had a very important conversation. During our negotiations, we raised certain ambitious issues pertaining to the further development of our relations. Of course, Armenia and Georgia enjoy magnificent relations. Our periodical reciprocal visits will continue in the future. We discussed a whole array of issues in such areas as transport, economic, and political cooperation. Notably, I believe that the outcomes of this visit will give fresh impetus to our humanitarian and political relations. Needless to say, the Prime Minister of Georgia has offered a very ambitious program, namely the issue of developing our trade and economic relations in the next few years, so that our trade turnover may reach one billion USD. This issue requires from all of us to be guided by a roadmap and take coordinated steps. We have agreed to hold a meeting of the Georgia-Armenia Intergovernmental Commission. Firstly, we must develop a roadmap for developing our trade and economic relations, for cementing our political, humanitarian, cultural, and educational relations. We can state that every subsequent meeting raises the level of our countries' relations, with the atmosphere growing more and more friendly and warm, and friendly relations being established between the members of our Governments. We must keep up this tone and dynamic and take decisive steps forward.